Ohlones want a voice on Hunters Point project

DEVELOPMENT Tribe says rules broken on Hunters Point project

Marcus Rodriguez (left) performs with other Ohlone dancers during a sunrise ceremony at Yosemite Slough in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010. Tribal representatives will appear before the Board of Supervisors to urge inclusion in the committee overseeing the redevelopment of the Hunters Point Shipyard. less

Marcus Rodriguez (left) performs with other Ohlone dancers during a sunrise ceremony at Yosemite Slough in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010. Tribal representatives will appear before the Board ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image
1of/4

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 4

Marcus Rodriguez (left) performs with other Ohlone dancers during a sunrise ceremony at Yosemite Slough in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010. Tribal representatives will appear before the Board of Supervisors to urge inclusion in the committee overseeing the redevelopment of the Hunters Point Shipyard. less

Marcus Rodriguez (left) performs with other Ohlone dancers during a sunrise ceremony at Yosemite Slough in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010. Tribal representatives will appear before the Board ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Ohlones want a voice on Hunters Point project

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

An Indian tribe held a sunrise ceremony at Yosemite Slough on Tuesday in an attempt to show just how important the sacred sites around the proposed Hunters Point Shipyard/Candlestick Point redevelopment project are to the Ohlone people.

"We want to be shown the respect we deserve as the original people of that land," Tony Cerda, chairman of the Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe, said. "We need city recognition."

Cerda and about a dozen other members of the tribe, many dressed in traditional regalia, appeared before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday afternoon to plead for a greater voice in development of what they say are their traditional tribal lands.

"There are only three ways to get land," Cerda said. "You can buy it, have it given to you or steal it. What gives them the right to dictate to us?"

The controversy springs from the environmental impact reports that were done for the 700-acre project, which received final approval last month. Cerda and other Indians argued that San Francisco refused to follow state rules requiring notification of the "most likely descendants" when development could take place around suspected burial sites.

While city officials insist that San Francisco's status as a charter city exempts it from many of those notification requirements, they also say that Ohlone groups were informed about the project and invited to make suggestions about dealing with their ancestral sites.

"It's fair to say we should have gotten to them earlier," said John Rahaim, the city's planning director. "But we met with them in February."

"They didn't meet with us," Cerda said, "and we're the only people who can trace our genealogy all the way back to Mission Dolores," where the Spanish city of San Francisco was born.

Ohlone tribes not recognized

Cerda's complaint highlights the problems surrounding the Ohlone claim to Bay Area lands. While no one disputes that the Ohlones were the primary American Indians living in the area before the Spanish arrived, there's no complete agreement on which Ohlone tribe lived where.

In January, for example, Rosemary Cambra, chair of the Muwekma Ohlone, spoke briefly to the Planning Commission about the need for environmental cleanup of the Hunters Point shipyard, which she referred to as "our homeland."

The federal government has added to the confusion by refusing to grant official recognition to any of the Ohlone tribes, which means they generally don't have to be consulted in connection with federal projects that may affect their homelands.

"The government has always pitted us against each other," said Cerda, whose tribe lays historic claim to the land from Carmel north to San Francisco and east to the slopes of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County.

Cerda and most of his tribe's 2,000 members now live around Pomona (Los Angeles County).

Supervisors ask for protocols

The supervisors gave a boost to Cerda's efforts by unanimously approving a resolution urging the Planning Department and the Redevelopment Agency to put together "specific protocols" for working with the Ohlones and other American Indian groups on the shipyard redevelopment project.

While the resolution might not have been the most ringing endorsement possible, it's an important bit of recognition, said Neil MacLean of the Ohlone Profiles Project, a San Francisco-based group to connect people with the history of the Ohlone tribe. He said the tribe not only wants to prevent the desecration of the resting place of their ancestors, but also to see construction of a cultural center with a genealogical research center and a place for sacred ceremonies.

That's a real possibility, said Michael Cohen, director of the mayor's office of economic and workforce development.

"Around the old dry dock, we plan to have cultural and historical facilities," he said. "We'll show the history of the African Americans who came to work there in World War II, but also the history of the Ohlones and all the other groups who were part of the area."